"Painted prior to 1930. Inside of Keach's living room, same room as Keach's stove. Exhibited but a few times out of studio.
"Of warmer things there are some interiors that are heartening. A Country Interior and A Country Sitting Room... I like either of these rooms quite as much as anything Henry Ford could recreate of the period of my great-great.'
".....a sunny country sitting room well kept by a lover of books and bric-a-brac...."
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A Red Cross in the window indicates that this family has already made a donation to the red cross organization. |
This painting was painted during a period when Woodward was making a study of interiors. He painted as many
as 3 interiors of the Keach residence, as well as his own studio interior and many sugarhouse interiors. It is believed he was seeking a replacement for the loss of
his Redgate Studio from which he frequently painted the interior woods just behind the studio lost to fire
in December 1922.
Another important note to make about this painting is that while it exhibited numerous times during Woodward's
career all of the exhibits but the J.H. Miller and Macbeth show were local and held a personal connection. In fact, the '38 Umass show and the '44 Myles Standish feature were
showcases where none of the paintings were for sale. This would make this painting a personal favorite of his. It remained in his personal collection and hung in his
home until his death along with a number of other paintings he could not let go unless a museum or collection made an offer on it.
Another vantage point of the room is found in it's sister A Country Interior. On the lower left
portion of the painting you can see the plants and table of A Country Sitting Room.
There is at least one more, possibly two Keach
homes interiors besides this painting and A Country Sitting Room, and Keach's Stove. Woodward
friend, Mrs. Helen Patch describes a painting of the Keach kitchen as follows, "I think; Rob
painted their kitchen-stoop:- an incredible mess of mops, pails, broken steps-- weathered and unpainted," which is neither of the two know paintings. We do
not know its name or what became of it.